The Best New Tab Extensions in 2026: Every Option Compared

Looking for a better new tab page? Here's an honest comparison of Momentum, Bonjourr, Tabliss, Toby, Workona, OneTab, Session Buddy, Chrome's own tab groups and CoolDesk — all in one place, with what each one does better than the rest.

Updated October 2026: now covers every major new tab and tab manager extension in one comparison.

Your new tab is the most-visited screen in your browser — most people hit it fifty to a hundred times a day. But "new tab extension" means three very different things: pretty dashboards that make the moment calmer, tab organizers that save and file your links, and workspaces that try to hold a whole project. Most comparison lists mix them up. This one sorts them by the job they actually do.

Full disclosure: we make one of the tools on this list (CoolDesk). So we hold ourselves to one rule — for every tool, including ours, we say what it's genuinely best at and where another tool beats it.

The short version

Tool	Type	Price	Account needed	Best for
Momentum	Dashboard	Free + Plus subscription	For Plus	A calm, beautiful daily focus page
Bonjourr	Dashboard	Free	No	A minimal, fast, open-source start page
Tabliss	Dashboard	Free	No	A simple, customizable open-source new tab
Toby	Tab organizer	Free + team plans	For sync	Filing tabs into visual collections
Workona	Workspaces	Free (capped) + paid	Yes	Cloud-synced browser workspaces for teams
OneTab	Tab saver	Free	No	Collapsing all tabs into a list to save memory
Session Buddy	Tab saver	Free	No	Saving and restoring whole browser sessions
Chrome tab groups	Built in	Free	For sync	Tidying the tab bar with zero install
CoolDesk	Workspaces + launcher	Free	No	Projects that hold tabs, apps and notes — with one search for all of it

Dashboards: make the new tab feel better

Momentum

Momentum turns your new tab into a daily ritual: a full-bleed photo, a greeting, one "main focus" for today, and a simple to-do list.

What it's best at: calm. It's the most polished, most beautiful new tab there is, and the single-focus prompt is a genuinely good habit.

Where others beat it: it doesn't organize your work — it decorates the moment you open a tab. Recurring to-dos, integrations and extra themes sit behind the Momentum Plus subscription. CoolDesk vs Momentum →

Bonjourr

Bonjourr is a minimalist, open-source start page inspired by iOS: a clock, a background, a search bar, and a few quick links — nothing else unless you add it.

What it's best at: being light. It's free, private, fast, and gets out of your way.

Where others beat it: it's a start page, not an organizer. There's nothing to save tabs into and nothing that remembers what you were working on.

Tabliss

Tabliss is another free, open-source new tab: pick a background, add widgets like time, weather, quotes and links, and you're done.

What it's best at: simple customization without an account or a subscription.

Where others beat it: same as Bonjourr — it's for looking at, not for working from.

Tab organizers: save and reopen your tabs

Toby

Toby replaces your new tab with a grid of saved tab collections — drag a tab in, reopen it later, share a collection with your team.

What it's best at: visual filing. Saving a whole window into a collection in one click, and sharing collections with a team.

Where others beat it: it finds what you've deliberately filed, not what you haven't. Sync needs an account, and team features are paid. CoolDesk vs Toby →

OneTab

OneTab does one thing: one click collapses every open tab into a list, freeing memory and clearing your head.

What it's best at: instant relief from tab overload. Free, no account, nothing to learn.

Where others beat it: the list just grows. There's no grouping by project and finding something later means scrolling. It doesn't replace your new tab, so pair it with one that does. CoolDesk vs OneTab →

Session Buddy

Session Buddy saves your open windows and tabs as sessions you can search and restore — it has rescued countless people from a crashed browser.

What it's best at: crash recovery and "save everything right now." Free, no account.

Where others beat it: a session is a snapshot of whatever happened to be open, not a project you shape over time. CoolDesk vs Session Buddy →

Chrome tab groups (built in)

Not an extension at all — Chrome lets you color-label groups of tabs, collapse them, and save groups that sync through your Google account.

What it's best at: zero install, zero learning curve. For many people it's enough.

Where others beat it: you drag tabs into groups by hand, groups only hold tabs, and there's no search across them. CoolDesk vs Chrome tab groups →

Workspaces: hold a whole project

Workona

Workona defined the browser workspace: spaces that hold your tabs, docs and tasks, auto-saved and synced to the cloud.

What it's best at: working across multiple computers and with a team. If your whole job lives in the browser and needs to follow you everywhere, it's the standard.

Where others beat it: it needs an account, the free plan caps how many spaces you can keep, and it stops at the browser — your desktop apps and files aren't part of the workspace. CoolDesk vs Workona →

CoolDesk (that's us)

CoolDesk treats the new tab as a project, not a dashboard. Tabs, desktop apps, links, files and notes are grouped per project, and one spotlight search (Alt+K) covers all of it — open tabs, history, bookmarks, notes and running apps, including things you never saved. Its AI can sort your open tabs into projects for you.

What it's best at: context. Switch projects and the whole working set comes back together, not just the tabs. It's free with no caps, needs no account, and keeps everything on your device.

Where others beat it: it's not the prettiest — Momentum wins on looks. It has no cloud sync across devices — Workona and Toby win there. And it's the youngest tool on this list. If you only want a calm start page, it's more than you need.

Which one should you pick?

• "I want my new tab to look beautiful and feel calm" → Momentum (or Bonjourr if you want free and minimal)
• "I want a clean start page and nothing else" → Bonjourr or Tabliss
• "I want to file links into collections, maybe with a team" → Toby
• "I have 80 tabs open and need relief right now" → OneTab
• "I'm scared of losing my tabs in a crash" → Session Buddy
• "I don't want to install anything" → Chrome tab groups
• "My work is in the browser and must sync across computers" → Workona
• "I juggle several projects across tabs, apps and notes" → CoolDesk

Try CoolDesk free: get the Chrome extension or download the desktop app for Windows and Mac — no account, about a minute to set up.

FAQ

What is the best free new tab extension? For looks, Bonjourr or Tabliss (both free and open source). For organizing tabs, OneTab and Session Buddy are free with no account. For project workspaces with no caps, CoolDesk is free.

What's the difference between a new tab extension and a tab manager? A new tab extension replaces the page you see when you open a tab. A tab manager saves, groups and restores your tabs. Toby, Workona and CoolDesk do both; Momentum, Bonjourr and Tabliss are new tab only; OneTab and Session Buddy are tab managers only.

Can I use two of these at once? Only one extension can own your new tab, but tab savers like OneTab and Session Buddy work alongside any of them.

Which one doesn't need an account? Bonjourr, Tabliss, OneTab, Session Buddy and CoolDesk all work with no account.

For launchers rather than new tabs, see Raycast Alternatives for Windows, or browse every comparison.

Tags: new tab extension, tab manager, chrome extension, momentum alternative, toby alternative, workona alternative, productivity